Baa

[Guest]

For those of you who didn't catch the news this morning BAA has been bought out by a Spanish building consortium for god knows how many billions.

This means that control of our major airports, including Gatwick, Heathrow and many others, is now in the hands of a foreign country and profits generated by these airports will go outside the UK.

Yet again I worry that things are allowed to happen in this country that are not in the best interest of the inhabitants of these islands without any concern, never mind intervention by the government.

On the same new program it was explained how demanding the building of over 1 million homes in the South East is overloading the water distribution system that is currently unable to cope with demand.

We seem to be in the control of a completely incompetent, uncaring, selfish and corrupt government and I just wonder what the hell they are going to come up with next.

[Guest]

my brother works for BAA at our local airport - Heathrow, he seems to think the quoted buy out figure , i think in region of 10 billion is a good one, BAA have been holding out for a cost of approx £10 per share, this buy out offer by the spanish airport and construction company is considered to be a fair price.....

the much needed investment should also be forthcoming if the take over contiues, with talks of expansion at the london airports in particular, but also remeber BAA also own southampton and several scottish airports too.....

i would not necessarily think this takeover is all bad.... but maybe i will be proved wrong........time will tell

[Guest]

well they aslo have another offer from an american company so lets just see!!!

[Guest]

i am pretty sure the spannish bid will go ahead....

[wonwinglo]

This is not a good move,and can only mean cutbacks and general streamlining only in the interests of the owners.

Just sit back and see the results in a few years time.

BA were in a mess only a few years ago,to cut costs they even de-mobilised the lifts at Gatwick besides laying off staff.

[Guest]

i have a feeling it may actually be a positive move.... the spannish company is also a construction company, and my god some of our airports need work !

Ferrovial ( the spannish firm) will if the takeover goes ahead get control of southampton airport, also scottish airports currently run by BAA- these i feel are under utilised at present, - heathrow is jam packed, and unless expansion occurrs quickly then alternative locations need to be sought for the increased number of flights into the UK... maybe we should be looking at re routing the increased number of flights ot these quality provincial airports, -southampton is a fine airport.....stanstead is ok, but hardly close to london..... heathrow is just too busy, too full...and gatwick is full of holiday charters and again very very busy...

there is already talk that ferrovial may be forced to sell off gatwick if the takeover goes ahead, this can only improve competition for the airlines/ airports which is ultimately is beneficial for air travellers,- yes it will mean they will need to trim the fat off the business- this will cost jobs but i understand there are alot of ''workers' who are not grafting within the BAA gorup !!!

, i know alot of people who work for BAA ,( my boss was also former maintnenance director for gatwick airport for 12 years) and he says the shake up is well overdue,

also BAA also operate a large majority of the airport functions, eg the baggage handling operations, car parking also the airport retail outlets and associated services- i honestly think that we may see improved service and keener pricing for anything from short stay car park to duty free style shopping if this deal goes through..... at the end of the day competition should be good for passengers and users of the airport.... currently it appears to be a closed market with the only people benefitting is the BAA bankers !

[wonwinglo]

Sorry I thought the takeover was for BA ( British Airways ) ! I understand now you are talking of British Airports Authority,that certainly is a very different matter,my apologies I should have read it more closely,in that case the move could be a good one for everyone concerned.

[Guest]

At the end of the day no-one is going to put money into anything without the guarrantee of a return.

True they will invest in our Airports but my concerns are:

A) They are having to borrow heavily to be able to afford the takeover so they are not exactly going to have loads of money to invest initially.

B) Profits generated by our airports in the future are going to be going outside the country and I don't see how anyone can consider that to be a good thing.

C) All future decisions regarding our major international airports are not going to be made in the interest of this country but are going to be made based entirely on the interests of the foreign owners and thier shareholders.

This is going to go exactly the same way as our water companies who make decisions based on keeping shareholders happy, most of which are in France, rather than creating a better, more efficient system for the UK consumers. This is exactly why profits are maintained yet desperately needed leak repairs are not carried out. Do you think the French shareholders care whether Kent has stand pipes or not?

A few years ago the remains of our steel industry was bought off by a Dutch company, Corus. All they have done since then is bled it dry, shut down steel works under the pretence of efficiency, and taken the remaining profits abroad. That was touted at the time as "Good for the industry" yet this industry is now practically non existant and the Dutch have continued to make money out of it.

I am certain that there is no doubt that this is not in the best interest of our airports, the travelling public or any of the employees who work for BAA. The only people who will benefit are the Spanish shareholders and Spanish construction workers.

[Guest]

totaly agree with you there richard.

not meaning to be shallow minded but i hate any foreign company that buys out a british one, in my mind they are in our country...so they are ours. they dont care about us and wouldnt know what is best for us even if they lived here. all they care about is proffit.

our prime minister asks george bush for permission to do anything, our industries are owened by people who dont even like fish and chips!!!

is there going to be anything left we can call "British" soon?

[Guest]

At the end of the day no-one is going to put money into anything without the guarrantee of a return..

agreed but you need to speculate to accumulate....investment will follow, it has too !

[Guest]

I am certain that there is no doubt that this is not in the best interest of our airports' date=' the travelling public or any of the employees who work for BAA. The only people who will benefit are the Spanish shareholders and Spanish construction workers.[/quote'] take a look at the portfoio of companies that the spannish firm own already....... its a multi national business, ferrovial already own amey construction, amongst other big businesses, these are not spain only industries..... they are already in the UK and several other european countries, you can also see other businesses they had aquired and turned round......they have continued to operate and develop since aquisition...

yes i agree with comments re corus and water for example, but its easy to say 'but why will foreign shareholders care if' .......eg leaky pipes or whatever, but at the end of the day the consumers do have a say and now we can vote with out feet, and lets be straight these businesses also have the option to invest in their own future through development and infrastructure investment - if they dont invest its not just the shareholders that will be screaming- so will the punters, the accountants and the share prices..... its industrial suicide

if ferrovial or whoever dont do a good job at say heathrow then people will vote with their feet and will use say luton airport instead,- the airlines and carriers are businesses too, they too will look for improved service and better deals from the new owners, if they dont get it they too will look elsewhere- they want to stay in business too.... i choose not to use BAA airport carparks as they are just too expensive so i use others eg pink elephant parking.... i vote with my feet....in time the airlines and passengers will also if the new owners dont do a good job.

and speaking of the BAA takeover whats the alternative goldmann sachs ??? who are only interested in a short term investment with the intention of selling on in the near future.... the uncertainty is not good for business or for growth and development....... at least ferrovial have experience of operating such businesses- also notice now how our sea ports are also being looked at by goldmann sachs also....... potential monopoly ????- they have no credible experience in these industires, they are being milked purely for financial gain...... how does that benefit the business ?

Many BAA employees are very much in favour of the Ferrovial takeover.... they see the much needed investment and ferrovials track record is a positive thing...

i stand by my previous post i think ferrovial Takeover is a GOOD THING....

[Guest]

totaly agree with you there richard.not meaning to be shallow minded but i hate any foreign company that buys out a british one, in my mind they are in our country...so they are ours. they dont care about us and wouldnt know what is best for us even if they lived here. all they care about is proffit.

our prime minister asks george bush for permission to do anything, our industries are owened by people who dont even like fish and chips!!!

is there going to be anything left we can call "British" soon?

so what about me..... left university and went to work for a foreign company in this country..... i cant complain, they have developed me, and have invested in me and have allowed me to buy my home and make savings..... this danish company has now been bought out by a british firm but with US money......so is the company danish, british or american, and does it really matter..... its a multinational world in which we live in now......?

just thinking aloud all the great british marques nearly all now have international investment- its the way of the modern world......

a few example which i think are correct.....

aston martin- owned by ford

trafalgar house owned by skanska

mini owned by BMW

cadbury owned by cocal cola schweppes group

i even heard that meccano is now run by the japs......!

[Guest]

Without getting bogged down into a political debate which I don't feel is appropriate for this forum I do not feel that comparing manufacturing companies with public service comanies is completely fair.

It is one thing to allow car manufacturers to compete in the outside world but quite another to allow water authorities, british ports, gas suppliers or airports to go the same way.

I think we have a right to expect all public service industries to be run in the best interest of the British public and with due respect to the surrounding environment.

Quite what the relevence is of quoting Mini's as an example I am not so sure. What I am sure of is that if you ask any Rover car worker whether the buy out of Rover by BMW was in the best interest of the British car industry I know what they would say. The only people who benefitted there were the Chinese and BMW who kept the Mini.

I am also not sure what the point is of including British Ports in the same discussion. As far as I am concerned neither Ports nor Airports should be run by either a foreign company or any other publicy owned profit generating organisation whose prime concern is thier shareholders.

I also completely dispute the argument that people will vote with thier feet. Heathrows position makes it the airport of choice for the capital and no matter how it is run by a foreign company will not change that. Do you think for a minute that British Airways will move its operation to Luton because of the way Heathrow is being run.

We will obviously have to agree to disagree on this one and wait to see what the future brings. Unfortunately though the fact that BAA employees are in favour of this buy out probably has more to do with thier personal gain rather than a genuine interest in the quality of service offerred by the airports.

Unfortunately the more and more we are sliced up and dished out to the rest of the world the less and less we have say in our own future.

Such issues as farming subsidies, fishing quota's and the refusal to pay back monies from the EU coffers as agreed by Maggie 20 years ago are far more relevent to the discussion of airport ownership than who makes what car but I don't think this is the place to take these debates any further.